Advent Guardian Shield Cruiser Fails to Autocast Renewal (Mend) During Combat

The Advent Iconus Guardian's ability "Mend" will not autocast during combat, even with obvious high-priority damaged targets in range, unless the ship simultaneously casts "Shield Projection". It does seem to be able to autocast Mend outside of combat without issue.

In combat, there seems to be some sort of restriction on these cruisers that is preventing them from casting their second-slot ability unless it is also casting the ability in the first slot at the same time. Almost as if it is looking for a target for Shield Projection, not finding anything eligible (all nearby targets already have the buff), and then giving up its "turn" in the ai behavior queue without considering that it has a second ability available... or something along those lines.

When modded to swap the mend/renewal ability to the first position and shield projection behind it, both abilities can fire without issue and the guardian behaves as expected.